ibrewster

Thanks. Simple, cheap, and many people do say that trickle charging the battery is better than simply warming the battery, so probably better. Did you leave that connected to the battery all the time, or only connect it when needed? I'll have to get a larger splitter for my plug-in cord, since my current three-way splitter is full with battery blanket, freeze plug, and oil pan warmers (I think - could be wrong about the specific devices, as I didn't do the install).

Yeah, they did do the testing in a garage, but perhaps it hadn't been inside long enough for the battery to fully warm up. I guess as long as my car continues starting properly (which, so far, it has), I won't worry about it too much. Maybe recheck this summer.

I don't recall the exact age of the battery - I did have it replaced, *I think* about two years ago, but I don't recall exactly (I'd have to dig out the records). Regardless, the shop tested the battery, and they said it was in excellent condition, just low charge. As for the alternator, it is original equipment, so around 43,000 miles.

Yeah, I have a battery blanket which is plugged in all day when I am at work, and over night the car is parked in a nice, warm garage that I just got this year (it's lovely). Also, the -47ºF was last week - today it's only around -13ºF, so not so bad. That said, it probably did get a fairly good drain starting at the lower temps, even with the battery blanket, and the rest of what you said about load is certainly correct (don't forget the heated seats!), so it makes sense that it should get back up to full charge here shortly. Thanks! P.S. What's your idea of a "long run"? My idea is the 6 hour drive down to Anchorage, but I'm sure that would be overkill. Would the 15 minute drive to/from work count?

I recently had my car in for servicing for a front end problem (turned out to be some loose lug nuts), but as part of the service they checked the battery and said that the battery was in good shape, but slightly low on charge. They didn't look into it at all since it wasn't bad enough to worry about and that wasn't why the car was in anyway, but the technician was saying he was thinking this model *might* have an alternator that was designed only to maintain the charge of the battery, not recharge it. He really didn't know without looking into it more though. Was he right in his guess, or might it be something else causing a low battery, such as an alternator going bad? For what it's worth, I haven't had any issues, including when starting at the -47º temps we had last week, so while the charge might be a bit low it's not enough to impact performance, at least not yet.